


Virtual Dreams

by Malkontent



Category: The Sandman
Genre: Bibliophilia, Books, Computers, Dreams, Fanfiction, Gen, Librarians, Libraries, Metafiction, Yuletide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-15
Updated: 2012-12-15
Packaged: 2017-11-21 04:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/593401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malkontent/pseuds/Malkontent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a rainy night, Matthew visits the library of dreams and finds Lucien preparing for the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Virtual Dreams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [secretagentsmutgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretagentsmutgirl/gifts).



With a flutter of black feathers the raven landed on open window sill overlooking the vast expanse of the valley of dreams below. It tokked and clicked its beak before hopping inside onto a writing desk near the window and ruffling its feathers, shaking off droplets of rain water from its back.

“Hey Lucien!” he cawed, “You around? Man, it’s pouring out.”

“Of course, Matthew…” a prim voice called from an adjoining room, “If you’ve gotten water all over my manuscripts again, we will be having a serious talk.”

Matthew looked down at the desk he was standing on, eying the water-stained parchments around him.

“Uhhhh… nope,” he said, “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

He quickly grabbed some nearby sheaves of dry paper with his beak and pulled them over the wet ones before hopping off the desk and taking wing. With a few quick strokes of his wings he circled around the towering shelves of books and scrolls and flew through a nearby doorway, towards the librarian’s voice. He found the tall man on his back beneath a table on which a large monitor sat surrounded by a jumble of wires and cables. He fluttered to the edge of the table and cocked his head in bewilderment.

“Uhhhh… Lucien, do you know there’s a computer in your library?”

“Of course, Matthew. It’s a commodore 1024. They never actually saw production in the waking world, but Lord Morpheus was kind enough to provide me with several so that I can begin cataloguing the backlog of electronic works that have been piling up in the last few decades. Unfortunately, I’m a librarian, not an electrician, and I’ve been trying to get the blasted thing working all day to no avail.”

Lucien pulled himself out from his nest of wires and stood up, stretching his back.

“Hey, don’t take this the wrong way…” Matthew began, “…but you don’t really seem like the computer type. Why the sudden interest in electronics?”

“Times change, Matthew, and we must all change with them, or risk being left behind. Libraries are places where knowledge is kept and protected. For most of human history that knowledge has been stored physically, on books and scrolls. But in the last few decades, that has been changing. In a few short years the majority of human thought has moved to digital modes of access. People have begun to think of themselves as authors of electronic files and emails rather than books and folios. Already their unwritten works come to us as web pages and downloadable books. It happened before when the printing press was created, and I’m sure it will happen again. It is my job to adjust to the change.”

“Wow,” Matthew said, staring at the jumble of wires, “I guess a lot has changed since I was a man. I never really pictured you as the progressive type.”

“Librarians have to be progressive,” Lucien said, picking up a nearby book and flipping it open to a marked page. Matthew could see from the spine that it was apparently a copy of Basic Computer Theory, by Charles and Henry Babbage.

“We are the keepers of knowledge and stories. What good are we if we cannot understand and access them?”

Matthew was about to respond when a knock on the library’s door drew his attention. The door swung open and a pumpkin-headed scarecrow dragging a cart filled with computers, wires, and keyboards barged in.

“Yo Loosh, where ya want this stuff? Oh heya, Birdbrain. How’s tricks?”

“Set it next to the Maleus Maleficarum Duo, if you please, Mervyn,” Lucien said without looking up from his reference guide.

“Heya Merv,” Matthew cawed, “How come you’re not helping set these things up? You must know something about computers.”

“Sure do, Featherhead, hell, I’m a regular computer whiz. I know all about that stuff. I got RAM comin’ out the yin-yang. But Mr. Librarian here won’t let me install ‘em for him.”

“I have no doubt your experience with these blasted machines is... extensive, Mervyn, but if I’m going to be using them regularly I should at least know how they work. Besides, if I allowed you to install them I’m sure they would quickly be filled to capacity with nothing but horribly degenerate pornography and computer viruses.”

“Nah, slap a few virus protection programs on there and you’re good to go,” Mervyn said as he left the wagon in the indicated spot and pulled out a stubby cigar and a lighter, “I mean... not that I would do that.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t,” Lucien said, putting down the book, “Just as I’m sure you wouldn’t think about lighting that cigar inside my library.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know the rules. Besides, the boss wants me to take a load of severed heads down to nightmare ASAP. I’ll catch you losers later.”

“See ya, Merv,” Matthew said as the scarecrow took his leave.

As Matthew watched curiously, Lucien moved to the back of the computer, picking up wires and fiddling with their connections.

“So does this mean you’re getting rid of the books?” Matthew asked.

Lucien looked up, aghast.

“Heavens, no!” he exclaimed, “Books are an integral part of human history! They are the lifeblood of civilization. Electronic information is fleeting and ethereal. As useful and omnipresent as it may be, it isn’t physical. Nothing will ever replace the feeling of holding a good, heavy book in one’s hands.”

The raven shrugged its shoulders as best as it was able.

“I guess so. I’ve never been much of a reader, even when I actually had hands. You really love books, huh?”

“I’m a librarian, Matthew. For me to not love books would be like a priest who did not love his gods.”

“Wow,” the raven said, “That’s pretty intense.”

The screen in front of him flickered to life, greenish letters scrolling across it’s surface.

“Hey Lucien! I think that did it! Whatever you just did got it working.”

The thin man circled around to the front of the machine.

“Oh good, it’s already beginning the download process. I was afraid I was going to have to program everything from scratch.”

Matthews beady eyes flicked back and forth following the scrolling lines of text.

“The Continuing Adventures of Sherlock and Mulder... Buffy’s Night Out... Midnight in Smallville... what is all this stuff?”

The librarian wiped off his spectacles before peering at the screen. A deep blush crept over his face.

“Oh... ummm... oh my. It seems to be downloading the global erotic fanfiction archives. I suppose that was inevitable, really.”

“Fanfiction?” the raven asked with a cock of it’s head.

“Yes, stories about literary and popular characters written by fans. They’re a very popular medium on the internet, so I hear. Generally they expand upon existing canon to fill in gaps and tell stories parallel to the ‘real’ ones. At least in theory anyway. Sometimes they can be rather... racy.”

Matthew clicked his beak on the ‘Enter’ button, pulling up a random story from the archive. As the text filled the screen he began reading aloud.

“A Fulfilling Gift, by Secretagentsmutgirl... Hermione/Snape... As if encouraged by her internal response, the hands at her waist moved, trailing soft fingers from her hips over to the inside of her thighs. Then even more slowly they dipped under her skirt. Soft fingers on her bare skin, feathery touch tracing the silky edge of the flimsy excuse for a thong.”

The raven’s eyes widened significantly and the librarian coughed, quickly hitting the escape button and allowing the computer to resume its download.

“Yes, well... I think that’s quite enough of that.”

“Holy crap...” Matthew said awkwardly, "People write that stuff about fictional characters? Aren't those kids books?"

Lucien sighed.

"It's a well-known maxim in cyberspace, Matthew, that if a story exists then someone somewhere has made an... adult version of it. And even if they haven't, someone has certainly dreamed of it."

"Any story?" the raven said incredulously, "That's a pretty weird idea. I mean around here everyone is kind of part of a story, right? You, me... even Lord Morpheus."

The raven's eyes widened once again.

"Oh, god, that's a creepy thought. You don't suppose there's fanfiction about the boss and the other Endless, do you?"

Lucien grimaced.

"You might be surprised, Matthew," said a figure from behind them. It was as though the nighttime itself had been given a voice, dark and deep and full of mystery, "After all, we are all merely characters in our own stories. How others choose to interpret those stories is often... surprising."

"Lord Morpheus..." Lucien exclaimed, turning to address his employer. Dream stood behind them, his arms crossed regally. The flames that danced in his robes and eyes flickered in the dim library.

"Oh, uhhh... hi boss..." Matthew said, somewhat abashedly.

"I see that your new project is well underway."

 "Yes, My Lord," Lucien replied, "Although it will obviously be quite a while before it has downloaded the entirety of the necessary documents."

 "So Boss..." Matthew said, "You don't mind people writing those kind of stories about you?"

 "I am the prince of stories, Matthew, but also I am defined by them. Does a painting complain about the brushstrokes used to create it?"

 He turned his head, his eyes sparkling like faraway star clusters in the inky blackness of space.

 "No, I do not mind."

 He lifted his arm, gesturing for Matthew to fly to it.

 "Come, Matthew. I have need of you."

 Obediently, Matthew hopped into the air and fluttered onto Dream's outstretched arm.

 "Where we going boss?"

 "To Nightmare. There are some minor matters that need attending to. There is a dream about carrion fields and mass graves in which I shall require your services."

 He turned to the librarian, who stood attentively nearby.

 "And Lucien, This project of yours will be a useful addition. I appreciate your initiative."

 "Thank you, My Lord." Lucien said, bowing slightly.

 "Farewell for now," Dream said, and in the space of a single breath he was gone, along with his Raven.

 Lucien glanced around the empty library cautiously several times before pulling a nearby chair in front of the monitor and sitting down. After waiting a few moments he eagerly pressed the “Enter” key and began reading.

“Honestly...” he said to himself as he eyed the glowing text.

“I thought they would never leave.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Yuletide! I hope you enjoy the story! :D I hope that it was acceptable to use that short quotation in the story, it just seemed deliciously meta! If not, let me know in the comments and I will remove it :)
> 
> Thanks so much to Measured_Words for story ideas and Betaing, and to Nary for moral support and betaing :D You guys are the best!


End file.
